For my hermeneutics class I am reading a book called “Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind” by Tremper Longman III and today while I was reading I ran across a story I really liked:
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This gentleman has a farm. He loves the old-fashioned way of doing things, so he doesn’t have any mechanical equipment and plows his fields with a horse. One day as he was plowing his field, the horse dropped dead. Everyone in the village said, “Gee, what an awful thing to happen.” He just responded, “We’ll see.” He was so at peace and so calm that we all got together and, because we admired his attitude so much, gave him a new horse as a gift. Then everyone’s reaction was, “What a lucky man.” And he said, “We’ll see.” A few days later the horse, being strange to his farm jumped a fence and ran off, and everyone said “Oh, poor fellow.” He said, “We’ll see.” A week later the horse returned with a dozen wild horses following it. Everyone said, “What a lucky man.” And he said, “We’ll see.” The next day his son went out riding, because now they had more than one horse, but the boy fell off the horse and broke his leg. Everyone said, “Oh, poor boy,” but my friend said, “We’ll see.” The next day the army came to town taking all the young men for service, but they left his son because of his broken leg. Everyone said, “What a lucky kid,” and my friend said, “We’ll see.”
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The thing that strikes me so much about this story is the fact that each incident was not The End for this man. He knew that other things would happen, that life would keep going on. Personally, I have a problem sometimes seeing past the moment; if something bad happens it’s the end of the world to me, if something good happens I feel like nothing bad will happen again. It’s strange. So I like this story because it reminds me that good or bad will come but life will always go on and God will always be in control.
This gentleman has a farm. He loves the old-fashioned way of doing things, so he doesn’t have any mechanical equipment and plows his fields with a horse. One day as he was plowing his field, the horse dropped dead. Everyone in the village said, “Gee, what an awful thing to happen.” He just responded, “We’ll see.” He was so at peace and so calm that we all got together and, because we admired his attitude so much, gave him a new horse as a gift. Then everyone’s reaction was, “What a lucky man.” And he said, “We’ll see.” A few days later the horse, being strange to his farm jumped a fence and ran off, and everyone said “Oh, poor fellow.” He said, “We’ll see.” A week later the horse returned with a dozen wild horses following it. Everyone said, “What a lucky man.” And he said, “We’ll see.” The next day his son went out riding, because now they had more than one horse, but the boy fell off the horse and broke his leg. Everyone said, “Oh, poor boy,” but my friend said, “We’ll see.” The next day the army came to town taking all the young men for service, but they left his son because of his broken leg. Everyone said, “What a lucky kid,” and my friend said, “We’ll see.”
***
The thing that strikes me so much about this story is the fact that each incident was not The End for this man. He knew that other things would happen, that life would keep going on. Personally, I have a problem sometimes seeing past the moment; if something bad happens it’s the end of the world to me, if something good happens I feel like nothing bad will happen again. It’s strange. So I like this story because it reminds me that good or bad will come but life will always go on and God will always be in control.
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